Newsletter

Memorial wins new federal funding for cancer study

Memorial University Medical Center researchers have received a $1.6 million federal appropriation to continue studying links between obesity and gynecologic cancers.

The appropriation will assist collaborative research between scientists at Memorial's Curtis and Elizabeth Anderson Cancer Institute and their counterparts at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

In December 2006, the project received a $1.35 million appropriation. John Risinger, an associate member of the local institute, said Thursday that he started the study in 2005 in Bethesda, Md.

His association with institute director Jeff Boyd will allow them to further probe the impact of obesity or overweight conditions and certain cancers in women.

"It really lets us move forward to capitalize on that earlier data," Risinger said. It will also allow researchers to expand the scope to include other cancer types, he said.

The two local researchers are teaming up with Lt. Col. Larry Maxwell, a Walter Reed physician, in conducting the study.

"With this project, researchers are hoping to pinpoint the link between obesity and cancer deaths," Savannah Republican Rep. Jack Kingston said in a press release.

"Ultimately, their findings will help us create new prevention strategies and better treatment plans to save lives."

Memorial officials said the Obesity and Cancer Program seeks an understanding of the connection between being overweight or obese and increased occurrences of gynecologic malignancies and cancer-related mortality.

U.S. Rep. John Barrow and Sens. Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss worked with Kingston, a member of the House defense appropriations subcommittee, to secure the federal funding.